Read below about a Soviet designer who professionally created weapons being blind

Photo: Kalashnikov Concern

The Adventure of the Empty House, a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle, describes a quiet air gun that was constructed, according to detective Holmes featuring in the short story, by a blind mechanic. It is an open question whether this blind master really existed. No any foreign master is known now who constructed weapons being blind.

There was a man like that in our country — Mikhail Margolin. His whole life provided an example of courage, fortitude, counteraction and passion for his work. Mikhail Margolin’s weapons were put into commercial production at Izhevsk Mechanical Plant (currently included in Rostec’s Kalashnikov Concern).

The master died 50 years ago on 25 January 1975.

Keeping on track

Our hero was born in 1906 in Kiev, Russian Empire. He had completed only three years of gymnasium when he got other things to worry about. World War I broke out, then the February and October Revolutions took place and on top of all that — the Allied Intervention and Civil War began.

Mikhail was seriously wounded in the head in 1924. He survived, but completely lost his sight. It might have seemed that life stopped, but the young man, who was only 18 at that time, didn’t give up. Despite his blindness, he learned the Braille letters and took to self-studying. His passion for small arms revealed exactly at that time.

In 1926, he started studying weapons by “viewing” them with his hands, by touch, relying only on his perception and memory. He had trained them so much that he could make the most complex calculations in his head. In addition, Mikhail Margolin could detect mechanical malfunctions, their causes and mode by listening to the sound.

Blind engineering

In the early 1930s, Margolin created his first product. This was a self-loading small-bore rifle designed and made of metal that could be converted to automatic fire. This rifle was intended both for target shooting and commercial hunting.

First Margolin pistols

At the same time, the 7.62mm Tokarev self-loading pistol was introduced into service in the Red Army, and it was necessary to explore whether a small-caliber cartridge could be used for firing practice with this pistol.

Margolin’s efforts turned out to be successful. One of his 5.6mm pistol models was produced in small quantities before World War II. Mikhail Margolin constructed simple and cheap 4.5mm single-shot pistols for beginners. A small-caliber training version of a light machine gun was another interesting product designed by Margolin.

Before World War II, Margolin participated in a competition for a new 7.62mm army pistol, but then he suddenly quited it. The blind designer turned out to be a man of vision. Margolin understood that the future lies in larger caliber pistols as early as in 1940 and started constructing a 9mm army pistol.

Along with constructing combat weapons, Margolin also continued working on sporting weapons. Several days before the war, his new sport pistol passed the test and was prepared for commercial production. But all this got interrupted on 22 June 1941.

To be continued...